Harlan, Edgar Rubey.
A Narrative History of the People of Iowa.
 Vol IV. Chicago: American Historical Society,  1931

p. 10

     FRANK MAHER, who represents the third generation of a pioneer family of Iowa, has for over twenty years been a busy lawyer at Fort Dodge, Iowa. He was born on a farm seven miles north of the city, in 1884.
    His grandfather, Stephen Maher, was a native of Ireland, and after coming to America lived for a time at Kingston, Ontario. He was engaged in assisting in the construction of the Erie Canal. Upon the completion of that canal he moved with his family to Ottawa, Illinois. Charles Maher, the father of Frank Maher, came with his father to Ottawa as a young boy. Stephen Maher, the grandfather, assisted in the construction of the old Illinois Canal, and after its completion, removed with his family to Fort Dodge, where they arrived in 1856. He homesteaded a farm seven miles north of the city, the land still being in the family.
     Charles Maher prior to the Civil war returned to Ottawa, and learned a trade as a blacksmith and wagon maker. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted the first day, and went with the Ottawa boys to Chicago. They were transferred to Cairo the next morning. They arrived at Cairo without any guns or war equipment. The commanding officer called for volunteers. Mr. Maher told them of a man who was in charge of the wagon and machine shop in Ottawa, and the officers gave him a team of horses and sent him back after that man. Mr. Maher brought the man to Cairo, where a large machine shop and gun foundry was erected. The man from Ottawa was put in charge, and Mr. Maher assisted that man during the period of the war. He came back to Iowa immediately after the war and became a very successful business man. He accumulated about sixteen hundred acres of land, all of which is still owned by his heirs. Charles W. Maher and Mary E. Calligan, who was born at Elizabeth, New Jersey, was the first couple married in the Corpus Christi Catholic church at Fort Dodge. Her father, Thomas Calligan, was born in Ireland, and settled at Fort Dodge, Iowa, before the Civil war. He went to California in 1849 and had considerable success in the gold fields. The Calligan home was on the site of the present post office at Fort Dodge. He died in that city in 1923 and his wife in 1928. Of their nine children eight are living, Frank being the sixth child. Both parents were devout members of the Corpus Christi church.
    Frank Maher attended high school at Fort Dodge, was in a school at Morgan Park, near Chicago, Illinois, one year and spent two years in Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana. In 1907 he was graduated from the law school of the University of Iowa and since that date has been steadily engaged in a general law practice in Fort Dodge. He also gives much time to the supervising of his private business interests. Mr. Maher is a Republican in politics, is a member of the Iowa State Bar Association and is affiliated with the B.P.O. Elks and Ancient Order of the United Workmen.
    He married in 1914, Miss Gertrude Early, who was born at Fort Dodge, where her father, J. G. Early, was an early settler. He now lives in Los Angeles. Mrs. Maher attended the Fort Dodge High School and finished her education in the Castle School at Tarrytown, New York. They have two children: Janice, born in 1915, in high school; and Charles, born in 1917, in the seventh grade. Mr. Maher is a member of Corpus Christi Catholic church.

p. 360

    HON. EDGAR A. MORLING is Emmetsburg's most distinguished citizen. He began the practice of law there more than forty years ago, accumulating honors and substantial increments of success through the years until he was called to the larger  service of the state as one of the justices of the Supreme Court and at the present time he is chief justice of that tribunal.
    Judge Morling is of English parentage. He was born at Boonville, New York, April 21, 1864. His parents Alfred and Eliza (Hines) Morling, were natives of Cambridgeshire, England, and after their marriage they came to the United States in 1857, their first home being at Gloversville, New York, and later they settled in Boonville. Alfred Morling was a carpenter and builder. He served as a non-commissioned office in the Union army during the Civil war and for many years held the office of justice of the peace at Boonville. He died February 4, 1903. He was born August 11, 1833. Mrs. Alfred Morling after the death of her husband came out to Emmetsburg, Iowa, where she passed away in 1911 in her eighty-fourth year.
    Judge Morling attended public school at Boonville and was graduated LL. B. from the Albany Law School in 1886. After a brief experience in law work at Boonville he went to Saint Paul Minnesota in 1887, and for two years labored as a member of the editorial staff of the West Publishing Company, assisting in the compilation of some of the first law books of that famous firm whose publications are known to every practicing attorney in America.
    Leaving the West Publishing Company in 1889, Judge Morling located at Emmetsburg. While he served as a member of the town council and as county attorney he devoted his time and abilities with singular zeal and energy to the routine of a growing general law practice. It was his reputation as a lawyer of mature experience and ability that brought him, on October 1, 1925, appointment to the Iowa Supreme bench, for the term ending December 31, 1930. He has written some of the important opinions of the court during these five years and his work has been in accord with the finest traditions of the bench.
    Outside of his profession the cause of religion has probably been Judge Morling's chief interest. He has attended four general conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has served on the board of trustees and board of education of the Northwest Iowa Conference, for many years was a member of the official board of the church at Emmetsburg. He is one of the trustees of Morningside College and a member of the Wesley Foundation of Iowa. Fraternally Judge Morling is a member of Earnest Lodge No. 399, A. F. and A. M., Earnest Chapter No. 108, Royal Arch Masons, Holy Grail Commandery, Knights Templar, the Eastern Star, and Medium Lodge and McPherson Canton, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
      He married, April 25, 1888, Miss Flora B. Tripp, of Cherokee, Iowa. She passed away October 6, 1920, leaving four children: William E., who died at Emmetsburg October 29, 1926; Ruth M., wife of R.A. Shover, in the real estate business at Emmetsburg; Max M., also in the real estate and loan business at Emmetsburg, and Maynard A.
     Among other interesting and gratifying honors Judge Morling has received in his long experience as a lawyer and jurist one was the conferring upon him of honorary membership in the legal fraternity Order of the Coif at the University of Iowa in April, 1930.

p. 206

     REV. WILLIAM B. MATHEWS is pastor of one of the flourishing congregations of the Disciples denomination at Des Moines, the Central Church of Christ, at ninth and Pleasant streets. Rev. Mr. Mathews has had several assignments of duty in the ministry and for several years was engaged in Y.M.C.A. work and was in that line of duty while overseas during the World war and post-war periods.
    He was born at Newcastle, Pennsylvania, May 30, 1892, son of Thomas and Annie J. (Barnes) Mathews. His grandfather, William John Mathews, was a native of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry, was a linen merchant at Belfast, and later came to the United States and died in Pennsylvania. His son, Thomas Mathews, was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and came to America at the age of twenty-seven and has spent his life largely as a farmer. He and his wife reside at Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and are active members of the Christian Church there. He is a Republican in politics and has filled some minor offices in his community. His wife was born at Pittsburgh, daughter of William Thomas Barnes, who was born in Belfast, Ireland, and was educated at the University of Dublin and became a minister of the Christian Church. Later he engaged in business as a land dealer and farmer in Pennsylvania. Thomas Mathews and wife had a family of five children and the four now living are: Lillian, at home; Sarah, wife of George Shaffer, foreman of a tin mill at Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Miss Martha, a school principal at Newcastle; and Rev. William B.
    William B. Mathews grew up at Newcastle, attended public schools there and graduated in 1917, with the A.B. degree, from Hiram College of Ohio. He had taught school a year before going to college, and after being ordained a minister of the Church of the Disciples had a church in Pittsburgh, leaving that to go overseas as a Y.M.C.A. secretary under the war council. He remained overseas until the latter part of 1920, having charge of Y.M.C.A. work with the Greek forces in Turkey.
    Rev. Mr. Mathews after returning home resumed his residence at Pittsburgh, where he was continued under the authority of the Y.M.C.A. for one year. For two years he was a student in the University of Chicago, form which he was graduated with the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity. Since graduating Rev. Mr. Mathews has given his time to two churches, spending four years at Bloomington, Indiana, and in 1926 came to Des Moines as pastor of the Central Church of Christ. He has had a very congenial sphere of work here, has a congregation of over 1300, and is the type of minister who is a community leader as well as a successful churchman.
    He married in 1923, Miss Edith E. Smith, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was reared and educated. They have a son, Thomas George Mathews, born in 1925. Rev. Mr. Mathews is a member of the Delta Theta Chi honorary professional fraternity and is a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce at Des Moines.